How to Tell the Age of Your Tires

I learned a helpful bit of information that I thought I’d pass on. It’s easy to determine the age of your tires with the manufacturing date printed right on the tires. Tires have a tire identification number that is a string of numbers with the age in the last four. The first two numbers are the corresponding week in the year, remembering that there are 52 weeks in a year, and the second two numbers represent the year. For instance the tire below was made in mid-December 2012.

As someone who needs to purchase new tires soon, I thought this was helpful. I trust the place I buy my new tires will be selling me brand new ones, but if I suspect a scam, this would be the place to look. Of course, if the tires were used, it would show on the tread, yet more likely to happen is paying full price for tires that have been sitting around for a long time. Tires have a life expectancy of six years, and I want as much of that time to be spent on my car.

I learned this tip and many other driving skills that I will be writing about during a Ford Driving Skills for Life training in Virginia last week. If you have a teenage driver, this free program is important to attend. The program tours around the country and is worth watching to see when it comes nearby.